SURVIVAL !!! ... (Ultimate Survival list, including an odd Apocalypse, Armageddon, Catastrophe, Cataclysm and Disaster)
Comprehensive list of movies about survival in various situations, presented in a chronological order - over a century worth of feature movies.
Curated collection with regular updates, suggestions and comments welcomed.
Also available - "Survival - Air Disasters !!!", "Survival - Nuclear Holocaust !!!" and "Survival - TV Series !!!"
Curated collection with regular updates, suggestions and comments welcomed.
Also available - "Survival - Air Disasters !!!", "Survival - Nuclear Holocaust !!!" and "Survival - TV Series !!!"
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- DirectorFrank HurleyStarsErnest ShackletonFrank WorsleyJ. StenhouseThe story of the 1914-1916 Antarctic exploration mission of Sir Ernest Shackleton. The ship sails south, breaking the ice, and ultimately getting trapped by the fast-changing weather. The ship breaks up in the ice, and while 22 men and 70 dogs wait on Elephant Island, Shackleton and a crew of five take a 20-foot lifeboat 800 miles to South Georgia Island to mount a rescue mission. We also get a good look at the exotic animals of the region, particularly the penguins.
- DirectorArnold FanckGeorg Wilhelm PabstStarsGustav DiesslLeni RiefenstahlErnst PetersenA man climbs a 12,000-foot mountain to search for his wife, who was lost on their honeymoon. Another couple makes the dangerous climb with him.
- DirectorVarick FrissellGeorge MelfordStarsCharles StarrettLouise HuntingtonArthur VintonLuke, a young sailor and fisherman, who thinks he is jinx-ridden, has to be persuaded, and taunted,before he will join a sealing-expedition in the Artic; first by his sweetheart, so he can find that he is not a jinx, and also by Jed, who has a devious reason.
- DirectorIrving PichelErnest B. SchoedsackStarsJoel McCreaFay WrayLeslie BanksA psychotic big game hunter deliberately strands a luxury yacht on a remote island, where he begins to hunt its passengers for sport.
- DirectorFelix E. FeistStarsPeggy ShannonLois WilsonSidney BlackmerA massive earthquake strikes the United States, which destroys the West Coast and unleashes a massive flood that threatens to destroy the East Coast as well.
- DirectorArnold FanckStarsGustav DiesslLeni RiefenstahlSepp RistAn expedition goes in search of a party lost the year before.
- DirectorMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackStarsFay WrayRobert ArmstrongBruce CabotA film crew goes to a tropical island for a location shoot, where they capture a colossal ape who takes a shine to their blonde starlet, and bring him back to New York City.
- DirectorGustav UcickyStarsRudolf ForsterFritz GenschowAdele SandrockIn 1915, Captain Liers, commander of a submarine is leaving his hometown, where he, his 2nd officer and the radio-operator, who is married there, spend their shore leave. Liers two brothers were already killed in action, so his mother doesn't like the idea of him going back to his sub. Liers thinks his 2nd officer is in love with a local girl, who is really pining for him. On patrol they sink a British armoured cruiser, but while returning to their harbor, they're attacked by a sub trap. They're able to sink it, but the trap has alarmed a destroyer, that sinks their sub. The sub lays on the sea bed at 200 feet, and except for the bridge, it is full of water. 10 members of the crew survived, but there are only 8 rescue devices. Liers gives the order, that the crew shall use them, but they disobey, either all get out or nobody...
- DirectorJohn FordStarsVictor McLaglenBoris KarloffWallace FordA dozen British soldiers, lost in a Mesopotamian desert during World War I, are menaced by unseen Arab enemies.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsClaudette ColbertHerbert MarshallMary BolandFour passengers escape their bubonic plague-infested ship and land on the coast of a wild jungle. In order to reach safety they have to trek through the jungle, facing wild animals and attacks by primitive tribesmen.
- DirectorWilliam Cameron MenziesStarsRaymond MasseyEdward ChapmanRalph RichardsonThe story of a century: a decades-long second World War leaves plague and anarchy, then a rational state rebuilds civilization and attempts space travel.
- DirectorMalcolm St. ClairStarsPeter LorreBrian DonlevyHelen WoodColonel Gimpy heads a spy organization trying to get the plans for a new airplane. Test pilot Ace Martin agrees to help.
- DirectorRobert StevensonStarsJohn LoderAnna LeeFrancis L. SullivanA young woman finds herself as the intended victim of a murder plot on a transatlantic flight from London to New York.
- DirectorFrank CapraStarsRonald ColmanJane WyattEdward Everett HortonWhen a revered diplomat's plane is diverted and crashes in the peaks of Tibet, he and the other survivors are guided to an isolated monastery at Shangri-La, where they wrestle with the invitation to stay.
- DirectorJames WhaleStarsMadge EvansJohn BolesBruce CabotA seaplane departs for China. On board are a nurse escaping a loveless marriage to do work with refugees, a woman hoping to surprise her estranged son, a wealthy heiress trying to distance herself from labor troubles, an oily politician, a moll and a mobster fleeing the wrath of the gangs they've double-crossed, two rival munitions salesmen out to cash in on the misery of war, and a fresh-faced young steward. Caught in a course-altering storm, a crash-landing destroys the plane, kills the plane's officers, and tosses the surviving passengers into the sea. They are washed ashore on an isolated island inhabited solely by mysteriously reclusive Mr. Taylor and his servant, Ping. Until Taylor decides if, how and when he will allow them to take his boat back to China for help, this disparate band must work together, change their self-centered ways, and examine their motives for wanting to escape from the island and their pasts.
- DirectorLew LandersStarsVictor McLaglenChester MorrisWendy BarrieThe S. S. Arcturus sails from Shanghai to San Francisco, and Dr. Jim Craig takes the post of ship's physician in order to be near Ann Grayson, the ship's nurse. Chief Engineer 'Crusher" McKay also has his eyes on Ann, and this brings an immediate conflict between the two men. When an epidemic breaks out below decks, Craig tells McKay the engine-and-fire rooms must be put under quarantine, but all of Craig's efforts to keep the disease from spreading are opposed by McKay.
- DirectorJohn FarrowStarsChester MorrisLucille BallWendy BarrieA plane has engine trouble while flying over a jungle inhabited by cannibals.
- DirectorEdward LudwigStarsThomas MitchellEdna BestFreddie BartholomewA family of Swiss origin living in London during the onslaught against Europe by Napolean seeks to leave and emigrate to Australia to nurture their values and raise their sons.
- DirectorMichael PowellStarsLeslie HowardLaurence OlivierRichard GeorgeA World War II U-boat crew are stranded in northern Canada. To avoid internment, they must make their way to the border and get into the still-neutral U.S.
- DirectorNoël CowardStarsNoël CowardJohn MillsBernard MilesThis "story of a ship", the British destroyer H.M.S. Torrin, is told in flashbacks by survivors as they cling to a life raft.
- DirectorZoltan KordaStarsHumphrey BogartBruce BennettJ. Carrol NaishAfter the fall of Tobruk in 1942, during the Allied retreat in the Libyan desert, an American tank picks-up a motley group of survivors but they face advancing Germans and a lack of water.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsTallulah BankheadJohn HodiakWalter SlezakSeveral survivors of a torpedoed merchant ship in World War II find themselves in the same lifeboat with one of the crew members of the U-boat that sank their ship.
- DirectorLeopold LindtbergStarsEwart G. MorrisonJohn HoyRay ReaganEscaping a Nazi prison train in war-torn Italy, an American and a British soldier set out for the Swiss border and find themselves leading a multi-national party of refugees for the Italian underground.
- DirectorWilliam H. PineStarsRichard DenningCatherine CraigRussell HaydenShortly after WW2, a military transport plane carrying an assortment of passengers crashes into the South China Sea forcing the survivors to await their rescue in a life raft.
- DirectorRené ClémentStarsMarcel DalioHenri VidalFlorence MarlyIn the last days of World War II, a group of Nazis and their sympathizers try to escape from reckoning using a submarine.
- DirectorKen AnnakinMichael C. ChorltonStarsPhyllis CalvertMargot GrahameJames DonaldA plane crashes on a Swiss glacier. With the radio broken and food limited, the survivors debate whether to stay put and await uncertain rescue or embark into harsh conditions toward civilization.
- DirectorSam NewfieldStarsRory CalhounAudrey LongVirginia GreyHow a plane crash in the jungle affects the survivors after they are rescued.
- DirectorCharles FrendStarsJohn MillsDerek BondDiana ChurchillThe story of British explorer Robert Falcon Scott's 1912 expedition and his quest to be the first to reach the South Pole.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WaynePedro ArmendárizHarry Carey Jr.Three outlaws on the run risk their freedom and their lives to return a newborn to civilization.
- DirectorRoy Ward BakerStarsJohn MillsNigel PatrickPeter HammondThe crew of a submarine is trapped on the sea floor when it sinks. How can they be rescued before they run out of air?
- DirectorJean NegulescoStarsClaudette ColbertPatric KnowlesFlorence DesmondDuring Word War II, American author Agnes Newton Keith is imprisoned by the Japanese in various POW camps in North Borneo and Sarawak.
- DirectorSam NewfieldStarsCesar RomeroHillary BrookeChick ChandlerMajor Joe Nolan heads a rescue mission in the South Pacific to recover a downed atomic rocket. The crew crash lands on a mysterious island, and spends much time rock-climbing.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsHumphrey BogartKatharine HepburnRobert MorleyIn WWI East Africa, a gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced English missionary to undertake a trip up a treacherous river and use his boat to attack a German gunship.
- DirectorArch ObolerStarsWilliam PhippsSusan Douglas RubesJames AndersonThe world is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Only five Americans survive, including a pregnant woman, a neo-Nazi, a black man and a bank clerk.
- DirectorRudolph MatéStarsRichard DerrBarbara RushPeter HansenAs a new star and planet hurtle toward a doomed Earth, a small group of survivalists frantically work to complete the rocket which will take them to their new home.
- DirectorChristian NybyHoward HawksStarsKenneth TobeyMargaret SheridanJames ArnessScientists and American Air Force officials fend off a bloodthirsty alien organism while at a remote arctic outpost.
- DirectorAnatole LitvakStarsRichard BasehartGary MerrillOskar WernerAs the US Army approaches Nazi Germany, they recruit German prisoners of war to spy behind German lines.
- DirectorJoseph H. LewisStarsHoward KeelJane GreerPatricia MedinaThe family and friends of two children lost in the wilderness mount a desperate search to find them.
- DirectorAndrew MartonStarsRex ReasonDiana DouglasMyron HealeyDuring World War II, David Simms pilots supplies between India and China over the Himalaya Mountains. One day he's forced to miss a flight and is replaced by his friend, Bill March. March's plane is lost en route and Simms feels guilty. Back in America he meets March's widow, Elaine. They marry and then both travel to Tibet to learn more about March's fate and about a mysterious Tibetan mask which has come into their possession.
- DirectorPhilip LeacockStarsJohn GregsonMeg BuchananJohn RaeA story about a true mining accident.
- DirectorStuart GilmoreStarsRobert ClarkeMargaret FieldGloria SaundersIn a post-apocalyptic New York City, three tribes of mutants (the Norms, the Mutates and the Upriver people) battle each other to survive.
- DirectorByron HaskinStarsGene BarryAnn RobinsonLes TremayneA small town in California is attacked by Martians, beginning a worldwide invasion.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsJohn WayneLloyd NolanWalter AbelA C-47 transport plane, named the Corsair, makes a forced landing in the frozen wastes of Quebec, and the plane's pilot, Captain Dooley, must keep his men alive in deadly conditions while waiting for rescue.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsWilliam HoldenDon TaylorOtto PremingerAfter two Americans are killed while escaping from a German P.O.W. camp in World War II, the barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.
- DirectorRoy Ward BakerStarsRobert RyanRhonda FlemingWilliam LundiganA tough, hard-driving business tycoon suffers a broken leg and is left to die in the desert by his scheming wife and her greedy lover.
- DirectorJack ArnoldStarsRichard CarlsonBarbara RushCharles DrakeA spaceship from another world crashes in the Arizona desert and only an amateur stargazer and a schoolteacher suspect alien influence when the local townsfolk begin to act strangely.
- DirectorIda LupinoStarsEdmond O'BrienFrank LovejoyWilliam TalmanTwo fishermen pick up a psychopathic escaped convict who tells them that he intends to murder them when the ride is over.
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsWilliam HoldenEleanor ParkerJohn ForsytheDuring the Civil War, a group of Confederates escapes from the Union POW camp at Fort Bravo but has to contend with the desert, the Mescalero Apaches and the pursuing Union troops.
- DirectorDick PowellStarsStephen McNallyAlexis SmithJan SterlingTwo escaped killers take hostages and hide in a Nevada mining ghost town, knowing that an atom bomb is scheduled to be tested there the next morning.
- DirectorHenri-Georges ClouzotStarsYves MontandCharles VanelPeter van EyckIn a decrepit South American village, four men are hired to transport an urgent nitroglycerine shipment without the equipment that would make it safe.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsAkemi NegishiTadashi SuganumaKisaburo SawamuraFrom June 1944, twelve Japanese seamen are stranded for seven years on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan.
- DirectorWilliam A. WellmanStarsJohn WayneClaire TrevorLaraine DayWhen a commercial airliner develops engine problems on a trans-Pacific flight and the pilot loses his nerve, it is up to the washed-up co-pilot Dan Roman to bring the plane in safely.
- DirectorByron HaskinStarsCharlton HestonEleanor ParkerAbraham SofaerThe Leiningen South American cocoa plantation is threatened by a 2-mile-wide, 20-mile-long column of army ants.
- DirectorLewis GilbertStarsMichael RedgraveDirk BogardeBonar ColleanoIn the North Sea in 1944, passengers of a downed Royal Air Force transport aircraft talk about their lives while awaiting rescue in their dinghy.
- DirectorRoger CormanStarsRichard DenningLori NelsonAdele JergensIn a post-Apocalyptic world after an atomic war seven disparate people find themselves in a protected valley in the home of a survivalist and his beautiful daughter.
- DirectorLeslie NormanStarsMichael RedgraveSheila SimAlexander KnoxOn a routine flight from Hong Kong to Japan, a British military transport aircraft's fate may or may not depend on a prophetic nightmare.
- DirectorJohn FarrowStarsJohn WayneLana TurnerDavid FarrarAs World War II begins, German freighter Captain Karl Ehrlich tries to get his ship back to Germany through a gauntlet of Allied warships.
- DirectorJohn FarrowStarsRobert RyanAnita EkbergRod SteigerAfter a commercial plane crash lands in a South American jungle, the passengers and pilots must patch up the engines and escape the cannibal-infested area.
- DirectorEdward BerndsStarsHugh MarloweNancy GatesNelson LeighAstronauts returning from a voyage to Mars are caught in a time warp and are propelled into a post-Apocalyptic Earth populated by mutants.
- DirectorLee RobinsonMarcello PaglieroStarsChips RaffertyFrançoise ChristopheReg LyeSteve MacAllister, an Australian official for The New Guinea Administration, gets orders to investigate an oil discovery by Ned 'Shark-eye' Kelly in the interior. He selects his native policeman, Sergeant Major Towalaka, to accompany him on his "walk into hell" and then finds that a French lady doctor, Louise Dumarcet, is to go with them part of the journey. They find the malaria-stricken Jeff Clayton in a deserted village and he joins the trek. They are captured by jungle natives but are released after Dr. Dumarcet cures the fever-stricken children of the chief.
- DirectorDon SiegelStarsKevin McCarthyDana WynterLarry GatesA small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.
- DirectorEdward DmytrykStarsSpencer TracyRobert WagnerClaire TrevorSelfish Chris Teller pressures his older brother, a retired climber, to accompany him on a treacherous Alpine climb to loot the bodies of plane crash victims.
- DirectorVirgil W. VogelStarsJock MahoneyShirley PattersonWilliam ReynoldsThree men and a woman crash-land in a deep crater in Antarctica, where they find a prehistoric world.
- DirectorHall BartlettStarsDana AndrewsLinda DarnellSterling HaydenIn 1950s Canada, during a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning, thus forcing an ex-WWII fighter pilot (Dana Andrews) to try to land the airliner in heavy fog.
- DirectorArne SkouenStarsJack FjeldstadHenny MoanAlf MallandDuring World War II, nine members of the Norwegian Resistance are trapped by the Germans in a deadly ambush. Only one escapes, and a fierce hunt through the ice desert has begun.
- DirectorRichard SaleStarsTyrone PowerMai ZetterlingLloyd NolanA ship's officer finds himself in command of a lifeboat full of survivors of a sunken luxury liner.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsRay MillandAnthony QuinnDebra PagetA murderous thief on the run with stolen loot forces a poor rancher to guide him across the desert into Mexico. Accompanying them is the rancher's wife, who happens to be the killer's former girlfriend.
- DirectorBob McNaughtStarsJoan CollinsRichard BurtonBasil SydneyIn 1942, a cargo ship jammed with British evacuees from Singapore is sunk by a Japanese sub. A small lifeboat carries a beautiful woman, an army officer, a bigoted administrator and a black seaman. Only the seaman knows the woman is a nun. The men reveal their true selves under the hardships of survival. Told in flashback while, in the present, the officer (Biscuit) searches for the nun (Sea Wife).
- DirectorGerald ThomasStarsRobert BeattyLee PattersonBetty McDowallA boy is accidentally locked in a bank vault. With less than ten hours of oxygen left in the vault, it becomes a race to save the boy.
- DirectorRoy Ward BakerStarsKenneth MoreRonald AllenRobert AyresOn her maiden voyage in April 1912, the supposedly unsinkable RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean.
- DirectorJ. Lee ThompsonStarsJohn MillsAnthony QuayleSylvia SymsDuring World War II in North Africa, a medical field unit must cross the desert in their ambulance in order to reach the British lines in Alexandria.
- DirectorEdward L. CahnStarsMarshall ThompsonShirley PattersonKim SpaldingThe first manned expedition to Mars is invaded by an unknown life form, which stows away on the rescue ship.
- DirectorFred F. SearsStarsGary MerrillNancy ReaganIrene HerveyAirplane passengers prepare for a crash landing in the ocean.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsMillie PerkinsShelley WintersJoseph SchildkrautDuring World War II, a teenage Jewish girl named Anne Frank and her family are forced into hiding in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.
- DirectorRanald MacDougallStarsHarry BelafonteInger StevensMel FerrerA miner trapped in a cave-in resurfaces, and upon discovering mankind has been wiped out in a nuclear holocaust, sets out to find other survivors.
- DirectorStanley KramerStarsGregory PeckAva GardnerFred AstaireAfter a global nuclear war, the residents of Australia must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months.
- DirectorByron HaskinStarsGuy MadisonVirginia MayoGeorge RaftAssorted people board a plane with a fire bomb in its luggage hold.
- DirectorCy EndfieldStarsRichard AttenboroughStanley BakerHermione BaddeleySir Richard Attenborough plays Ernest Tilley, a man who lost his daughter in a hit-and-run accident. He tracks down the man responsible for the accident and boards the same plane, threatening to blow up himself and everyone on board as an act of vengeance. What follows is an Airport-type movie with all the passengers having their own little subplots and fears.
- DirectorGuy GreenStarsRichard AttenboroughPier AngeliJohn GregsonDue to an accident, a seaplane operated by a small airline company ditches off an island in the Pacific and the surviving passengers must find a way to be rescued.
- DirectorHenry LevinStarsJames MasonPat BooneArlene DahlAn Edinburgh professor and assorted colleagues follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the earth's center.
- DirectorMichael AndersonStarsGary CooperCharlton HestonMichael RedgraveA disgraced merchant marine officer elects to stay aboard his sinking cargo ship in order to prove the vessel was deliberately scuttled and, as a result, vindicate his good name.
- DirectorKen AnnakinStarsJohn MillsDorothy McGuireJames MacArthurA Swiss family must survive being shipwrecked on a deserted island.
- DirectorGeorge PalStarsRod TaylorAlan YoungYvette MimieuxA man's vision for a utopian society is disillusioned when travelling forward into time reveals a dark and dangerous society.
- DirectorFritz BöttgerStarsHarald MareschHelga FranckAlexander D'ArcySurvivors of a plane crash on a remote island find it is covered by spiders. When bitten, the survivors start turning into spiders!
- DirectorEdgar G. UlmerStarsRobert ClarkeDarlene TompkinsArianne UlmerIn 1960, a military test pilot is caught in a time warp that propels him to year 2024 where he finds a plague has sterilized the world's population.
- DirectorMikhail KalatozovStarsInnokentiy SmoktunovskiyTatyana SamoylovaVasiliy LivanovFour geologists search for diamonds in the wilderness of Siberia.
- DirectorRoger CormanStarsBetsy Jones-MorelandAntony CarboneRobert TowneEv, her husband Harold, and their friend Martin go scuba diving while on vacation in Puerto Rico. When they surface, they find that everyone on the island has died.
- DirectorDuilio ColettiStarsVan HeflinCharles LaughtonMylène DemongeotGerman raider, using various disguises, forces British ship to surrender. Story told from German point of view.
- DirectorAndrew L. StoneStarsRobert StackDorothy MaloneGeorge SandersAfter a boiler explosion aboard an aging ocean liner, a man struggles to free his injured wife from the wreckage of their cabin and ensure the safety of their four-year-old daughter as the ship begins to sink.
- DirectorNicholas RayStarsAnthony QuinnYôko TaniPeter O'TooleAn Eskimo who has had little contact with white men goes to a trading post where he accidentally kills a missionary and finds himself being pursued by the police.
- DirectorJoseph PevneyStarsDana AndrewsRhonda FlemingEfrem Zimbalist Jr.Disaster movie about a Navy jet and a commercial airliner heading for a mid air collision.
- DirectorCy EndfieldStarsMichael CraigJoan GreenwoodMichael CallanDuring the Civil War a group of Union soldiers, a Confederate and a civilian escape the stockade using a hot-air balloon and end up on a strange Pacific island.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsSpencer TracyFrank SinatraKerwin MathewsA crusty, eccentric priest recruits three reluctant convicts to help him rescue a children's leper colony from a Pacific island menaced by a smoldering volcano.
- DirectorVal GuestStarsEdward JuddJanet MunroLeo McKernWhen the U.S. and Russia unwittingly test atomic bombs at the same time, it alters the nutation (axis of rotation) of the Earth.
- DirectorIrwin AllenStarsWalter PidgeonJoan FontaineBarbara EdenWhen the Earth is threatened by a burning Van Allen Radiation Belt, U.S. Navy Admiral Harriman Nelson plans to shoot a nuclear missile at the Belt, using his experimental atomic submarine, the Seaview.
- DirectorRay MillandStarsRay MillandJean HagenFrankie AvalonA family leaves Los Angeles for a camping trip just before hydrogen bombs destroy the city. In the midst of the chaos, the father must fight to keep his family alive along the highway.
- DirectorFredric GadetteStarsSeamon GlassThayer RobertsAubrey MartinA deputy sheriff stops motorists on a mountain road after police dispatch reports of a possible nuclear attack.
- DirectorArne SkouenStarsToralv MaurstadHenny MoanAlf MallandWartime 1944. Oddmund stays at a remote cabin in the high mountains, about to lead 12 refugees out of the country. But he also awaits the most important person is his life, Ragnhild, which isn't coming.
- DirectorGrigori NikulinStarsVladimir ChestnokovOtar KoberidzeLev KruglyyTransatlantic flight 713 is in trouble because the pilot and crew are poisoned while flying above the ocean. Now the passengers have to take control to save their lives.
- DirectorVernon SewellStarsColin GordonJohn ChappellAnn LynnBank robbery goes awry, manager and cashier locked in vault. Robbers return after failed rescue attempt, race against time to free hostages before police arrive.